National government incurs fiscal deficit of P50.51 B in July

This brought the seven month deficit to P205 billion, up 20 percent from the P171 billion posted the same period last year. File

MANILA, Philippines - The national government incurred a fiscal deficit of P50.51 billion in July almost unchanged from the P50.67 billion recorded in the same month in 2016, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.

This brought the seven month deficit to P205 billion, up 20 percent from the P171 billion posted the same period last year.

A deficit occurs when government’s expenditures exceed the revenue that it generates.

According to Treasury data, revenue for July alone grew 14 percent to P194.62 billion from P170.25 billion the same month last year. For the seven-month period, revenue stood at P1.37 billion, up eight percent from P1.27 trillion as of July last year.

“The revenue collection for July is good, it grew 14 percent. The revenue collection offices are moving towards their goal, they exceeded their target in July, but they are still behind year-to-date,” Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said.

Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collections reached P138.08 billion in July, 18 percent up from P117.45 billion last year, and 2.5 percent higher than the P134.72 billion target for the month.

From January to July, BIR collections went up nine percent to P986.1 billion, but remained behind the P1.04 billion target for the period.

The Bureau of Customs’ collections also rose 13 percent in July to P35 billion, but fell short of the P39.18 billion target. Year-to-date, BOC’s revenue reached P245.3 billion, exceeding last year’s collection by 11 percent, but falling short of the P257.14 billion target for the period.

Meanwhile, expenditures in July increased 11 percent to P245.13 billion as compared to the P220.92 billion posted in the same month in 2016.

From January to June, disbursements amounted to P1.58 trillion, nine percent higher than last year’s P1.44 trillion.

“For the whole year, we are still catching up with the target. The whole year (growth) target is 14.1 percent, year-to-date it’s 9.3 percent so there is still catching up,” Beltran said.